havent heard crap about him for what 5+ years?
now all the sudden he releases a video, ballast setup, sunglasses giveaway, etc etc. every where you look this month hes at the top of the list.
obvious a pubilicity push. hes been dormant for so long then just suddenly hes everywhere.
anyone else notice this?

but good for him. hes a great rider, and i love to see the "older" guys showing the new gen that we still got it and can hang

Thought I have the cheek to whack up a thread without contributing in a little while so thought I would join in........If Watson wants to be back in the game and is willing to bring out edits like his latest.....bring it on : )

I don't think Watson has been dormant for 5 years. He may not put out web videos all the time but he is a rider in a different place. For one he has long standing with LF and a very successful board series. Also he has been with Nautique for ages. He's been a part of the Tour and everything that LF has done. SPY gives away his glasses frequently. I've never been under the impression that he was gone, he will show up in Chad Sharpe's videos regularly.

He has been appearing in random LF videos over the last few years, he was part of the crew that went to Australia for Defy, he had his video part in Out Of The Pond in 09. I've seen interviews etc in magazines and short edits on Chad Sharpe's site. I think he's been doing a lot overseas, because most of the stuff I have heard about him in more recent years has been from international stuff. Plus he does all the LF events, so he's clearly busy being in the public rather than making web edits.

Hardly retired, just not in the media spotlight since everyone these days is focusing media on the young guns.

I feel he's been busy and visible the past 5 years. If anyone fell into this category, I'd say it's Harris. Only here from him when a new sponsor is picked up, and that is intense and normally short lived, the attention and the sponsorship.

watson has always been there! he has the best selling board of all time and is at legend status. and you never see bull s*it from him. everything is proper, grabbed and what wakeboarding should be. as for new sponsorships..... he has ridden for lf, nautique, dragon for at least a dozen years. dragon has featured him in ads for over 10 years..... as they started producing promodel glasses with the h20 program.... watson was a natural fit. of course dragon is going to give a few pairs away via a marketing push. i got a few pairs they are amazing.

one trick from watson is worth 20 from any other rider. he said f-it and wrote his contracts and deals on his terms.... he doesnt have to sit at protour events everyweekend.... other riders wish they had that deal.

dormant? until the peak came out his boards have been the most popular boards by far for the last 3-5 years. when the Watson hybrid came out, it seemed like everyone was riding one and his bindings are still probably the most popular LF binding on the market. There aren't too many pros (if any) that have 2 pro models out at once that are still both used as much as his boards. Think how good of a shape the Watson classic is that guys like Raf are still picking that as their boat board of choice